Dear PoP – “Nasty un-attributed robo calls against Jim Graham”

I just received an odd, anonymous robocall. I picked up the phone and a woman’s recorded voice said, in harsh tones: “Jim Graham paid for the abortion of his companion/Chief of Staff’s girlfriend.” The nothing – just silence.

Is that the key issue in the Ward One councilmember race? Really?”

and

“Dear PoP,

Twice so far today I’ve received nasty robo calls against Jim Graham. The voice just starts talking about him paying for abortions and having an affair etc. but there is no attribution at all – no “this message brought to you by – ” Regardless of what one feels about Graham, and no matter how used one is to shady campaign tactics, this seems way out of bounds. (Calling the number that shows up on caller ID just gives a “the party is not available” message.) Any idea who is doing this? ”

I’ve been hearing this from lots of readers and on twitter. It, sadly, never surprises me how dirty things have gotten during campaigns. At the moment, it is still not clear who is behind these calls.

These calls are illegal as they do not identify who is making the calls or who is paying for them. Yes, somebody please post the phone number, or report it to the local elections board so it can be investigated.

Umm…you’re fooling yourself if you think Graham and his camp are above manufacturing a scandal like this. This story got a decent amount of local press, got his name out there, and made him look like the victim of dirty politics.

Think about it. If you were one of two candidates running to unseat him, would you risk running these amateurish attack messages with the hope that the bad press and cost would be offset by you (and ONLY you…not the third candidate for this position) pulling ahead in the polls? Or is it more likely that someone associated with the guy who’s actually getting a boost from the story is behind the robocalls?

If you believe Graham and/or his supporters had nothing to do with these calls, you’d probably also believe it’s a coincidence that the prominently placed Weaver yard sign I’ve had in front of my house (near a major commuter route) for 3 weeks was pulled out and thrown on the ground near the post office on 14th Street on the first day of early voting?

I don’t care who he lent money to or what that money was used for…Graham’s seeking re-election because he likes being a power broker, and he and his supporters are definitely not above playing dirty.

Ouch – I just came home from a pig roast – so unfortunate picture. But while the calls are obnoxious, I’m actually more disturbed that anyone is stupid enough to think they could get away with something like this these days and really insulted at the lack of finesse.

Unfortunately, people can and will get away with such calls. Any caller ID number displayed is probably fake (easy to do), and the call probably originates from an off-shore operation — completely illegal, but completely untraceable.

Another reminder that we can pass all the laws we want here in the USA about what is and isn’t a “legal” phone call (or e-mail, or web site), but that still doesn’t prevent the rest of the world from reaching out and touching us.

Yep. I receive the same call about the abortion thing — and it went on and on and on. Disgusting. How can any decent human being even consider running for public office in the future if they know they could be subject to such tawdry smear campaigns? It’s difficult for me to believe that even those who do not intend to vote for Jim Graham would support such sleazy tactics.

Ugh, not true. Graham lent Ted Loza a lot of money, some of which was used for an abortion and then paid back to Graham. It’s a f’d up situation for sure, but what the phone call states is simply not true because it goes well past what the article you link to states. Get it? What you just wrote is not, technically, true.